Upon viewing both superhero films: The Incredibles and Wonder Woman, I was able to identify the distinctions between gender roles and gender portrayals among the characters presented. This analysis will include the comparison between both films and how they’ve immersed into a world of mainstream consciousness, as well as examining the typical and atypical ways in how male and female superheroes are portrayed. Furthermore, we’ll be demonstrating the transfiguration of mass media throughout the past decade and where it stands as of late. Prior to analyzing the details of both films, it’s worth noting when they were in production and how they’ve arrived as an idea, as well as what the moral of the story was and how they’ve come to terms in illustrating such story. The Incredibles was released toward the ending of 2004, but unsurprisingly was preceded by innumerable years of production. Wonder Woman was released in 2017, which is a decade and some years following the release of The Incredibles. This holds into account the mentality that was presented in the films as an adaptation of society at the …show more content…
To be specific, the protagonist Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, is portrayed as possessing ‘atypical' traits of strong leadership, moral character, ambition, instrumentality, fierceness, and dominance. As well as the ‘typical’ feminine traits: empathy, vulnerability, sensuality, patience, and beauty. The former certainly sound like traits you’d identify within a male, which is exactly what the message was. That both male and female characters can possess such personas, without constraints and judgement. The latter serves as a plus, in this case. Additionally, the film captured the essence that surrounds modern society’s view on female equality and female equity, remarkably shining light on the issues encompassing today’s agenda regarding
Representation refers to the construction of media languages which are used to portray a particular type of filmic world to an audience (slide). This essay shall outline different treatments of filmmaking used to establish certain societal groups from the critically acclaim superhero film The Dark Knight (2008) directed by Christopher Nolan. This sequel film follows Batman, with help from Lieutenant James Gordon, and new district attorney Harvey Dent eradicating crime from Gotham city until a crazy mastermind criminal, the Joker appears in Gotham, creating chaos. The first paragraph introduces the stereotypical representation of masculinity in superhero film through the aspects of mise-en-scene and acting of the male protagonist. Storyline and mise-en-scene help establish the representation of pretty, leading- female characters that semi-disrupts the damsel in distress stereotype. Before lastly describing the representation of menacing villains through cinematography decisions, sound and an actor’s performance.
Throughout comic book series publication the recurring theme of female suppression is prevalent in the Wonder Woman comic book series, there are several panels of wonder woman straining against the bindings of society. The Golden Age (1930’s -1940’s) women were portrayed as damsels in distress, in almost every comic book cover a lady is tied up with a man trying to save her. Facebook’s group created a page which focuses on the portrayal of women in comics, the site summarizes women in the Golden Age as career-oriented girls. Comic book characters as Nellie the
The superhero, Wonder Woman made her first appearance in a comic book in October 1941. Since then she has come a long way from becoming a staple superhero in the comic books to appearing on television in 1975. There have been several attempts at trying to make her appear on the big screen and Patty Jenkins finally succeeded. Therefore, on June 2, 2017 this female superhero finally had her own movie. There was a bunch of speculation as to how this movie was going to turn out like, is it going to be like all the other superhero movies, how is this female director going to do, or how is everyone going to react to a female superhero who is just as much a hero as any man. It seems as if Wonder Woman was able to go above and beyond what everyone was expecting. Wonder Woman is an amazing movie because the movie demonstrates the best of human values, the actors made the characters seem real, and the whole movie was one amazing plot twist.
Male heroism is active and based on the deeds they perform, while the female ideal is passive and based on the actions they do not perform.
It should be noted that Marston had been considered as a feminist. He found that world would be been more peaceful if female values were cherished and if men were willing to accept women as equals . The creation of Wonder Woman was to counter what Marston perceived as an overly masculine-dominated world . She served as a role model for not only little girls but for adults as well. According to DiPaolo’s book, War, Politics and Superheroes:
Wonder Woman is progressive and the perfect example of a capable woman. In an interview, Carter defends Wonder Woman stating that she portrayed her as strong woman whose actions say “You have a problem with a strong woman? I am who I am, get over it.” (Williams). Gadot also makes a powerful statement in accordance with female liberation on and off of the set of Wonder Woman.
Who doesn’t love a good superhero? The perfect figure, the spandex suit, the flowing cape, flawless looks, and the powers we can only dream of having. Superheroes have been around for ages now, leaving an everlasting imprint on our hearts. It is no secret that males dominate the superhero industry; both the heroes themselves and those who create them. Superman, Batman, Ironman, and Spiderman have become the top heroes of all time; there is nothing wrong with them holding the spotlight, but female heroes are underrepresented. There are notable female heroes, but they tend to be drawn with a busty figure that few women are naturally blessed with, and show little emotional rational in fights. Take Black Widow (Marvel) for example, anyone would love for her figure and kick-ass moves. Wonder Woman is our hero of the hour, she has made her way onto the big screen; casting her into the spotlight more than ever. She screams fights for love, promotes peace, is a beacon of hope, and screams feminism. What’s not to love? The new movie released on June 2, 2017, has called more attention to the American-spirited, Amazonian woman than ever before. The movie is the first fully female directed movie, Patty Jenkins brings a great female to the big screen. Although the movie is great and supports feminism, is the movie the depiction of Wonder Woman that should be idealized?
The presence of media is prevalent in our technology savvy lives. Yet with inequality shown in media, we are constantly bombarded with sexist concepts. This issue was specifically exemplified in the movie “The Avengers” where a bunch of superheroes get together to collectively defeat an enemy.
Throughout the world women are depicted to be oversexualized among forms of media such as video games and comic books. The idea of oversexualization towards female characters is that they have been often drawn and animated in hypersexual ways. Even going as far as viewing them as a sex object, their revealing body images are eye candy through the eyes of men. Hence women found in comic books and video games are frequently emphasized by their excessive physical appearances, objectification, portrayal, and character role.
To some, wonder woman is regarded as a feminist icon. However, O’Reilly does not believe so because of the submissive themes that her creator included in the comics.
“Wonder Woman is a walking- and sometimes flying- paradox of attributions and images. She is, at once, a female sex symbol and feminist icon: physically vulnerable, morally virtuous, financially independent, self-determining, and, in tune with her womanly ways, self-sacrificing” (Wright 6). Wonder Woman was created by William Marston in order to show and achieve women empowerment. At the time that Wonder Woman was assembled, there were no women superheroes. The only superheroes that were created at the time were powerful, strong, fully-clothed, white, males. Even though Wonder Woman is just as powerful and important as other male superheroes, she is often easily centered out from other superheroes because of her physique, lack of clothes,
Frequently, most superheroes in cinema are portrayed by male characters rather than women, creating a distinction between gender roles. Indeed, through the passage, “These results may suggest to viewers that women are less important, knowledgeable, and capable than men – and less likely to be a hero” (Miller et. al) women are much less likely to be featured as the hero within the film, and more likely to be featured as the “damsel in distress” of the story. Furthermore, women are much more likely to be depicted in a sexualized fashion, even when displayed in the role of hero. This feature of women with a lack of dominance defies feminism, as they lack roles in superhero films and they are portrayed with the sole purpose of boasting
Filmmakers use traditional gender stereotypes to produce characters audiences can easily identify with by portraying conventional images of a person with identifiable characteristics. In previous years, the dominant representation of a women in film has been the passive, subjugated protagonist. However, through the development of female empowerment and added feminist representations of film, the female heroine transformed to become strong and independent women in her own right, as an individual character.
Several kinds of heroes have been represented throughout literature, most of these heroes represented share ideals that are similar, some that are valued and some that have been set as expectations that society have learned to accept and understand. During the Anglo-saxon times, people would commonly write novels or poems that revolved around heroes and other ubiquitous subjects such as monsters. In the film Wonder Woman directed by Patty Jenkins heroic ideals are represented through the main character Diana Prince. The daughter of Queen Hippolyta is characterized with the typical heroic ideal: strong, selfless, and loyal. Throughout the film, the audience is presented with all kinds of characterization that are credible by Anglo-Saxon roots. In modern day, our works of literature, films, and poems consist of similar ideals that the Anglo-Saxons possessed; however, we also have shifted from some of the things that were portrayed in their works. Our current contemporary ideals also consist of feminism and love.
In the beginning of comics, it was male-dominated and that didn’t seem like it was going to change, until Wonder Woman came along, and this fact alone makes her a massive emblem of female empowerment in the world. She was still written by a man, but it was a start of a whole new era. Wonder Woman’s story begins on an island of all women who called themselves The Amazons. The queen of The Amazons wanted a child and her tribe told her to make one out of clay, and thus, Diana AKA Wonder Woman was born. Diana was “as lovely as Aphrodite, as wise